The D&D thread

Mr_Bungle · Apr 19, 2025

imready2go said:
After nearly 40 years I may have convinced some old friends to play D&D again. They're all retiring now and finding life after work a bit boring, so a distraction like D&D might be worth a look for them. I planted the seed with a few of them a couple weeks ago, so we'll see how it goes.

What sort of prompts are you using to get AI to create a dungeon for you? (Asking sincerely, not fucking with ya)
If I do manage to get these friends to play, they're going to need a dungeon or two to get used to playing again, especially since the last time we played together was 1st edition! lol
It would make my job as DM easier if I can get an assist from AI to make some quick and easy one-offs.

I used Midjourney to make a few Battle Maps and non combat cities before as a test for future games with my DM

BigDirty . I have some minor issues with the grid overlay showing the proper opacity and scale. I would be more than happy to create some maps for you or any other FoH bros on here, I also do character portraits!

Grabbit Allworth · Apr 19, 2025

Midjourney and the other AI art tools are a godsend for bringing the DM's (and player's) vision to life.

A lot of people argue that theater of the mind is the best way to play the game, but I couldn't disagree more. I prefer it when the DM/players are able to definitively show me what they have envisioned in their own mind's eye.

Obviously, there are going to situations where people have differing opinions on what something 'should' look like, but I feel those situations are the exception and we shouldn't let perfection be the enemy of great.

bigmark268 · Apr 19, 2025

Grabbit Allworth said:
Despite having nearly 100 pre-written hardback adventures, I have never run a single one. Though a couple of the 3rd party campaigns are absolutely fantastic and significantly better than anything I could have ever come up with. That said, I have read many of them and mine them for ideas to add to my games.

My last campaign was heavily based off of a 3rd party book, but I changed so much that even if the players read the hardback they probably wouldn't have realized it was the inspiration for the game.

I think it's completely normal (common, even) for DMs to change/tinker with campaigns. In fact, I'd be concerned if the DM didn't because published campaigns are -- A. Almost always ridiculously unbalanced (usually too easy, but there are some situations where they're TPKs if run as-written). And B. Usually far too generic and don't have enough flavor to interest any one group of players, but that's a consequence of trying to write an adventure for hundreds of thousands of players with a near-infinite number of group compositions and preferences.

As an example -- I absolutey loathe the anthology adventure books. I mean I absolutely hate them, but there are a lot of people who love them. I've never really examined why I hate them so much, but I think it's because of the fundamental way I view D&D. Some people view the game as just some characters going into a dungeon killing monsters and getting loot. Almost a videogame-like experience that's just more open-ended. And adventure anthologies line up with that style of play. However, D&D, for me, needs to be much more 'epic'. I have a hard time enjoying D&D unless the group/party are working together towards crafting their own saga/legend over the course of a long campaign.

One-shots and games of 'popcorn' D&D do almost nothing for me. I'm way too much of a whore for the drama, loss, sacrifice, revenge, and triumph that a group of players who really love the game can create.

Tl;dr

You're doing it right.

Fuck yeah dude!

bigmark268 · Apr 19, 2025

Mr_Bungle said:
I used Midjourney to make a few Battle Maps and non combat cities before as a test for future games with my DM BigDirty . I have some minor issues with the grid overlay showing the proper opacity and scale. I would be more than happy to create some maps for you or any other FoH bros on here, I also do character portraits!

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So I've got some wild options if the use if AI for art in general.

I mean for the speed and ease that those pics were made is fantastic. But it pains me to see the human element removed from the process.

I was a fine arts major in college. And for decades I've loved Franzatta, Moebius, Caldwell, Easley, Parkinson, and Elmore. And I just feel it cheapens their amazing skills.

That being said. Yeah those look amazing. I've been painting for 25yrs but can't do that level of work lol.

Mr_Bungle · Sunday at 1:01 PM

bigmark268 said:
So I've got some wild options if the use if AI for art in general.

I mean for the speed and ease that those pics were made is fantastic. But it pains me to see the human element removed from the process.

I was a fine arts major in college. And for decades I've loved Franzatta, Moebius, Caldwell, Easley, Parkinson, and Elmore. And I just feel it cheapens their amazing skills.

That being said. Yeah those look amazing. I've been painting for 25yrs but can't do that level of work lol.

While the AI generated content is nice on the fly, I still think that the human touch involved in creating these spaces will be around for a while. For example, Cze and Peku do a fantastic job. I have played on a few of their maps myself.

https://www.patreon.com/czepeku

Dr.Retarded · Sunday at 6:04 PM

bigmark268 said:
So I've got some wild options if the use if AI for art in general.

I mean for the speed and ease that those pics were made is fantastic. But it pains me to see the human element removed from the process.

I was a fine arts major in college. And for decades I've loved Franzatta, Moebius, Caldwell, Easley, Parkinson, and Elmore. And I just feel it cheapens their amazing skills.

That being said. Yeah those look amazing. I've been painting for 25yrs but can't do that level of work lol.

Dude that's awesome.

Can't leave out Brom though, but hell yeah that's the stuff I loved when I was young. I think I've got a few tabletop art books of Frazetta. You got to check out a documentary about him called Painting with Fire. It's awesome and he was a real man's man.

I kind of lost touch with my art hobby that I had done since I was young. Had a little side business at one point where I was doing pet portraits for people using Corel painter, which is an amazing program, but I haven't touched it in a number of years. My mom was doing a bunch of dog training and so I had a pretty easy market to get into, on people love their pets, I will spend surprisingly good money on immortalizing them. Even my wife loves the pain and make art, probably one of the reasons we're together.

I'll never be a master but it's just so much fun, and all the stuff that I used to pay for myself was old fantasy-based stuff because of dungeons and dragons and RIFTS, etc.

That's pretty badass though if you've been able to make a career out of art. I always wanted to but my parents told me you'll never be able to make a living a stupidly I believed them, but hey at least I feel my creative hunger through problem solving and construction, I'm in all honesty I love it. Scratches the same itch to a degree, and it puts food on the table.

bigmark268 · Sunday at 8:17 PM

Dr.Retarded said:
Dude that's awesome.

Can't leave out Brom though, but hell yeah that's the stuff I loved when I was young. I think I've got a few tabletop art books of Frazetta. You got to check out a documentary about him called Painting with Fire. It's awesome and he was a real man's man.

I kind of lost touch with my art hobby that I had done since I was young. Had a little side business at one point where I was doing pet portraits for people using Corel painter, which is an amazing program, but I haven't touched it in a number of years. My mom was doing a bunch of dog training and so I had a pretty easy market to get into, on people love their pets, I will spend surprisingly good money on immortalizing them. Even my wife loves the pain and make art, probably one of the reasons we're together.

I'll never be a master but it's just so much fun, and all the stuff that I used to pay for myself was old fantasy-based stuff because of dungeons and dragons and RIFTS, etc.

That's pretty badass though if you've been able to make a career out of art. I always wanted to but my parents told me you'll never be able to make a living a stupidly I believed them, but hey at least I feel my creative hunger through problem solving and construction, I'm in all honesty I love it. Scratches the same itch to a degree, and it puts food on the table.

As I sit, I read this with a smile. Since college I've only ever had one job that used my degree lol. And that was only for a year. The pay was abominable.

Thankfully I learned early on in my 20s that working from gig to gig was not for me. I ended being a civil service grunt lol. Worked at a sewage treatment plant for a number of years. Now I'm in road construction.

Though I've still managed to paint, draw, sculpt, write, and create over the years.

Maybe one day I'll use my degree in more than name alone for work. But in my early 40s now it feels unlikely lol. But who knows what the cards hold.

Back to dnd! Over the next 2 weeks I'll be crafting, hopefully, a soulmonger piece for my games conclusion. And some adamantine scaffolding.

Hoss · Monday at 12:11 AM

Mr_Bungle said:
I also do character portraits!

How much info do you need for a character portrait? One of the only things I want to do with AI is generate a character picture. But I can't figure it out.

Daniel Tiberius Sharp. Half elf bard. 22 Cha. Wears a black dragon mask, black cape, bare chested, white dragon skin codpiece Green Dragon skin bracers. Carries the Fochluchan bandore and a rapier adorned with dragon teeth. In combat I always have a flying dragon dick by my side.

Also draw him as a hybrid werewolf (2 legged) if you don't mind.

Mr_Bungle · Monday at 6:00 AM

Hoss said:
How much info do you need for a character portrait? One of the only things I want to do with AI is generate a character picture. But I can't figure it out.

Daniel Tiberius Sharp. Half elf bard. 22 Cha. Wears a black dragon mask, black cape, bare chested, white dragon skin codpiece Green Dragon skin bracers. Carries the Fochluchan bandore and a rapier adorned with dragon teeth. In combat I always have a flying dragon dick by my side.

Also draw him as a hybrid werewolf (2 legged) if you don't mind.

This should be enough info for me to generate a few decent portraits, sorry I didn't see this until this morning. I'll have them done once I get off of work buddy!

What background would you like?

Hoss · Monday at 11:43 AM

Mr_Bungle said:
This should be enough info for me to generate a few decent portraits, sorry I didn't see this until this morning. I'll have them done once I get off of work buddy!

What background would you like?

I didn't think about that. Large ice cavern or just an open field I guess.

Mr_Bungle · Monday at 11:32 PM

Hoss said:
How much info do you need for a character portrait? One of the only things I want to do with AI is generate a character picture. But I can't figure it out.

Daniel Tiberius Sharp. Half elf bard. 22 Cha. Wears a black dragon mask, black cape, bare chested, white dragon skin codpiece Green Dragon skin bracers. Carries the Fochluchan bandore and a rapier adorned with dragon teeth. In combat I always have a flying dragon dick by my side.

Also draw him as a hybrid werewolf (2 legged) if you don't mind.

Hey

Hoss just a quick update, this has been a bit of a challenge. Sometimes distinguishing between swords is difficult when using the DnD Style prompt. And adding the werewolf so far only adds the head but I'll keep trying. I have a few work in progress images I can keep tweaking.

Here's a few.

KurganAU · Monday at 11:42 PM

Mr_Bungle said:
While the AI generated content is nice on the fly, I still think that the human touch involved in creating these spaces will be around for a while. For example, Cze and Peku do a fantastic job. I have played on a few of their maps myself.

https://www.patreon.com/czepeku

I'm a player in a Strahd campaign that has just started. First time we are using Foundry while in person, DM is using resources from this guy you might know of.

https://www.patreon.com/BeneosBattlemaps

Even when we don't have a battlemap up, just an image for the current location is helping set the tone.

Mr_Bungle · Tuesday at 12:00 AM

KurganAU said:
I'm a player in a Strahd campaign that has just started. First time we are using Foundry while in person, DM is using resources from this guy you might know of.

https://www.patreon.com/BeneosBattlemaps

Even when we don't have a battlemap up, just an image for the current location is helping set the tone.

Those are great, I never would have considered the possibility of 1st person perspective for things like carriage travel, very nice.

I'm a big fan of having the setting images too. I think it's a particularly useful tool for subtlety encouraging players to explore a certain area while simultaneously taking some creative pressure off the DM.

Mr_Bungle · Tuesday at 12:10 AM

imready2go said:
After nearly 40 years I may have convinced some old friends to play D&D again. They're all retiring now and finding life after work a bit boring, so a distraction like D&D might be worth a look for them. I planted the seed with a few of them a couple weeks ago, so we'll see how it goes.

What sort of prompts are you using to get AI to create a dungeon for you? (Asking sincerely, not fucking with ya)
If I do manage to get these friends to play, they're going to need a dungeon or two to get used to playing again, especially since the last time we played together was 1st edition! lol
It would make my job as DM easier if I can get an assist from AI to make some quick and easy one-offs.

The prompt I use is along these lines.

"A Dungeon and Dragons style Battle Map of a, (insert description of location here)" you may want to add a line instructing the AI to overlay a grid but some generations will do it automatically.

Guurn · 2025-04-25T11:47:00-0400

I found out my brother, who i used to play with in 1981, has restarted playing online with his son and a high school friend and that friends daughter. Basically it's just a camera setup, they don't actually use any online tools. I've given dice as a gift before to gamers as graduation gifts. I thought I'd do the same this time, I'm his godfather so I'm getting other things as well. I ordered dice from Misty Mountain, they are better than I expected. Not cheap though. I still hate 4 sided dice, ailways have. Anyhow, just a plug for them for the few that still use dice.

Hoss · 2025-04-25T15:40:15-0400

Guurn said:
I still hate 4 sided dice, ailways have.

Ever tried alternate shapes? I rolled some barrel shapes and didn't like them. A wedge or an arch might be OK. But also what about a doubled up 8 sided dice or tripled up 12 sided?

Guurn · 2025-04-25T16:36:59-0400

Hoss said:
Ever tried alternate shapes? I rolled some barrel shapes and didn't like them. A wedge or an arch might be OK. But also what about a doubled up 8 sided dice or tripled up 12 sided?

I entered a Kickstarter on gyroid dice that had an alternatively shaped 4 sided die. I'm hoping that satisfies. My other pet peeve is sharp dice, why is that a thing? You can see it in this picture.

Hoss · 2025-04-25T20:04:05-0400

Guurn said:
I entered a Kickstarter on gyroid dice that had an alternatively shaped 4 sided die. I'm hoping that satisfies. My other pet peeve is sharp dice, why is that a thing? You can see it in this picture. View attachment 583706

I have a set of spiky dice. I love them but I never use them.

bigmark268 · 2025-04-25T21:09:45-0400

One of my friends has some spikey metal dice. He got mad cause he raised it was denting the shit out of thr cover of his players hb lol

Hoss · 2025-04-26T01:18:39-0400

bigmark268 said:
One of my friends has some spikey metal dice. He got mad cause he raised it was denting the shit out of thr cover of his players hb lol

yup same here. Except it was denting my dice tray and the papers I was rolling on before I got the dice tray.

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